If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

30th Anniversary!! Post your RETURN OF THE JEDI memories here:

Now, I guess I'll go first.

I remember going to opening day (there weren't many theaters that did morning shows unless it was a Saturday or Sunday) at the theater that no longer is a theater. My mom and dad got there before anyone else had lined up, so we went to the Burger King (which is still a BK) across the parking lot for dinner. I recall watching people start to line up, and my chances at being first gone like Fett down a Sarlaac. BTW, some friends I met later in middle/high school were apparently at that same theater that night, but I didn't know who they were yet. That was the only time I saw ROJ in a theater, prior to the SE in the mid/late '90s.

I didn't actually watch ROTJ until 1986, but the merchandising juggernaut that swept through everything in 1983 had a profound impact on me as a kid. It was the first major motion picture marketing event that I can remember and it's been the prototype for every big summer movie ever since.

I think not seeing the movie for 3 years actually helped extend my interest in Star Wars long after all of my friends had moved on or "grown up." I was kind of obsessed with the film during those years and would gobble up whatever scraps of information I could dig up about it. I read the novelization and storybooks over and over again, so I knew the story almost by heart before seeing the film. As a result, I was slightly disappointed after my first viewing of ROTJ, but I watched it about 15 more times that summer and it ingrained itself in my mind. It wasn't until the Special Editions came out that I realized ROTJ wasn't almost unanimously considered to be the greatest film of all time.

Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split. - Robert E. Howard

Probably would be a good idea. I'll see it eventually. I've seen some of the toys, and I love those "baby Wookiees" that appear. Crossing my fingers that Boba Fett leads all the other bounty hunters into battle. I just hope Yoda doesn't die.

I still remember that hot day in May waiting in line at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, my grandmother took me and the line was out the courtyard onto the street for a mid-day showing. At 7 years old, ROTJ was pretty much everything I could have wanted after the sad ending of ESB, and I came out of the theater re-enacting Luke's saber catch over the Dune Sea.

Although I was around at the time I have no Return of the Jedi memories to speak of on that faithful day. I was only 7 months old. The only thing I can say with almost certainty is I likely messed my pants on that day.

Probably would be a good idea. I'll see it eventually. I've seen some of the toys, and I love those "baby Wookiees" that appear. Crossing my fingers that Boba Fett leads all the other bounty hunters into battle. I just hope Yoda doesn't die.

Then I guess I shouldn't spoil the movie by telling you that Luke and Leia totally hook up and she dumps Han for good.... oops...

Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split. - Robert E. Howard

SPOLEIERS ZALERT: Well, Vader turns out NOT to be Luke's father, but interestingly he IS Leia's. Jabba the Hut is still a green alien, like in the Marvel Comic. Han tells Lando for some reason that he didn't kill his wife; Lando says "I don't care." Threepio and Artoo turn into the Death Star and make an amazing drink out of Greedo's carcass. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings. All Jedi had was a bunch of Fraggle Rock puppets.